Wii Fitness for Dummies (aka, Fitness on the Wii), available from booksellers everywhere, as well as online discounters like Amazon.com, focuses on three of the top Wii fitness programs, Wii Fit Plus, EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer, and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010, as well as provides additional coverage of the entire Wii fitness phenomena and general exercise theory. As is always the case when writing a book, there is inevitably content that doesn't fit either due to subject matter, cost, or space constraints, which is where this regularly published bonus tips and content comes in. Each week, for an indeterminate number of weeks, Christina and I will be posting items that will both add to your enjoyment of the book and provide good fitness information in general.

This week, we're running the twelfth entry, which is a clearing house of Tips and Tricks:

GENERAL TIPS01
Just as warming up is the key to exercise safety, so too is staying hydrated while you work out. Drink plenty of fluids; sports drinks and water are two great options. Remember, thirst is not a good indicator of your body’s state of hydration. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re probably already in a negative balance. Just as you gradually raised your core temperature with a good warm up and then exercise, it is equally important to gradually and consistently return your core temperature and heart rate to normal levels through a good cool down. Non-stressful activities like walking in place or light stretching will help to lower your blood pressure and remove lactic acid build up in your muscles, which can cause cramping. Other great cool down options are Wii Fit Plus’s Training Plus or Balance Game activities, which are described in Chapter 6.

02
Aerobic means with oxygen, and aerobic exercises are often referred to as cardio because of their cardiovascular benefits. These exercises train your heart to pump more blood with each contraction, decreasing your resting heart rate (less than 60 beats per minute is considered an indicator of good physical fitness), which reduces the wear and tear on the heart. Your lungs also take in more oxygen and your circulation increases to distribute the oxygen throughout your body to meet the new demands.

03
Yoga and strength training can work together synergistically to help you maximize your fitness goals, and techniques learned through one can help with the other. For example, yoga helps you learn how to breathe properly, which is essential during any exercise, and being able to balance yourself doing a one-legged yoga pose may help you perform lunges and vice versa. Because yoga and strength training can work synergistically, a relatively recent fitness trend has actually brought them together.

WII FIT PLUS TIPS01
To boost your fitness levels, you can try to follow the 10,000 steps per day program; this will require walking about 5 miles daily (1 mile equals about 2,000 steps). If you give this a go, be sure to take it slow, increasing your steps by 50 to 100 daily until you reach the goal. You can use any of the running programs in Wii Fit Plus to help you achieve the 10,000 steps a day goal should you elect to try it. If you do, be sure to record your steps in Wii Fit Plus, even if you don’t engage in a workout that day. Turn to Chapter 1 for more on entering Steps.

02
BASIC BALANCE TEST
Do you tend to think mathematically? The percentages on the left and right of the vertical bars provide a numerical value for your weight shifts. If you think of the top of the vertical bars as representing 0 and the bottom of the bars as representing 100, you can assign rough values to the rectangular areas on each bar. Those values will indicate what percentage of bodyweight needs to be applied to each side to reach the rectangular area. For instance, if the rectangular area on the right were at the very top of the vertical bar and the one on the left at the very bottom, 100% of your weight would have to shift to the left side.

03
STILLNESS TEST
Keep your core solid by tightening your abs and keeping your shoulders straight back. Good posture will improve your balance, which in turn will increase your ability to keep still. Also, try to concentrate on a point at eye level ahead of you and keep your gaze there for the duration of the test, instead of looking directly at the screen. Balance is affected by visual stimuli, so if your eyes are tracking the grid or you follow it mentally, your body may make some subconscious adjustments to compensate for the perceived movements.

04
ACTIVITY LOG
To add an activity to the Activity Log, press the Activity Log button. Press A when you see "You can record exercises and activities done outside Wii Fit Plus in your Activity Log," and then click on Yes when you see "Do you want to record and activity in your Activity Log?" You will then have to select an activity type, either Light, Normal, or Hard. If you are unsure how your activity ranks, you can click on Examples for each of these to get an idea. Once you make your selection, just click on the up and down arrows for hours and minutes as desired and press OK. You will then receive a summary of what was added, followed by the question "Would you like to add another activity?" Pick Yes or No, depending on what you'd like to do.

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Reminder:
Before following any nutritional advice or starting any workout regime, it is always wise to consult with your physician. This is especially important if you are pregnant, have cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure, or suffer from an orthopedic condition. Further, should you start to experience any fatigue, shortness of breath, chest tightness, dizziness, or any other discomfort, pain, or unusual symptoms while working out with Wii Fit Plus or any other fitness program, stop activity immediately and consult with your physician.

Comments

So, I think that will be it for bonus content for this book. I was certainly pleased to get 12 weeks worth of content out of it. Hopefully it was appreciated by a few people. We'll of course be open to any further questions and will of course post about any further updates regarding the book indefinitely. As always, lots of great things are always in the works, so keep checking back to Armchair Arcade for the latest!

Good job, Bill and Christina. I don't see how anyone who purchases the book won't appreciate this bonus content. Indeed, it's much, much more than I would have done. Too bad there's no real way to tell if it had an impact on sales. I suspect that the For Dummies brand alone will do more for sales than anything else.

I have pretty much given up on bulking up and would at this point just be satisfied to not be fat. My dad always had that big pot belly that I've worked hard to avoid. I was listening to the radio today and heard the word muffin top, which seems to describe my situation pretty well.

Still, I hate exercising. I try to run no a treadmill and do some push-ups and squats, that type of thing, but it's so dreadfully boring. The only exercise I routinely enjoy is riding my bicycle, but that's of course a weather-permitting kind of thing (and from what I hear, unless you're really pedaling furiously, you get little to no benefit). I guess I'm just lazy. It'd be different if I had someone who enjoyed sports or something, but just forcing myself to run on a treadmill or whatever is very, very difficult for me.

Therefore, I've been working on my diet, trying to cut down on beer and alcohol (I've managed to go 10 days without any, wish me well), fried foods (I'm especially vulnerable to fried chicken), and chips. Unfortunately, the salad I buy tends to be wilted in just days...I do enjoy the various "Morning Star" veggie patties and such I've found, but I heard even those were soaked in hexane.

Good job, Bill and Christina. I don't see how anyone who purchases the book won't appreciate this bonus content. Indeed, it's much, much more than I would have done. Too bad there's no real way to tell if it had an impact on sales. I suspect that the For Dummies brand alone will do more for sales than anything else.

Well, whether it had any impact on sales or not was not necessarily the point, though the bottom line is that it certainly couldn't have hurt and won't hurt going forward. It's just like what I did with our Vintage Games book. The more information available on the "official" page we host on the Armchair Arcade Website, the more likely people will want to check the actual book out. Even though I think going forward - since publishers don't want to touch videogame books anymore it seems - we'll be doing a mix of self publishing (as Armchair Arcade Publishing or some such thing) and traditional publishing, I think the same format should be followed. Do the best book possible, then offer up post release "support". I think long-term it will pay off if only from a reputation standpoint. I know there are some authors who release a book and are done with it, but it's truly a partnership with the publishing company. I think all that was done for Vintage Games bares that out, as our book has seemingly stayed active in the publisher's pipeline for far longer than many of their other books (again, no hard data there, just my perception).

Matt Barton wrote:

I have pretty much given up on bulking up and would at this point just be satisfied to not be fat. My dad always had that big pot belly that I've worked hard to avoid. I was listening to the radio today and heard the word muffin top, which seems to describe my situation pretty well.

Me too. I think you reach a certain age, and bulk becomes very difficult to achieve without it being fat, particularly if you're natural and/or don't have favorable genetics for such things. Refining what you have, becoming stronger, looking better, etc., are all admirable goals.

Matt Barton wrote:

Still, I hate exercising. I try to run no a treadmill and do some push-ups and squats, that type of thing, but it's so dreadfully boring. The only exercise I routinely enjoy is riding my bicycle, but that's of course a weather-permitting kind of thing (and from what I hear, unless you're really pedaling furiously, you get little to no benefit). I guess I'm just lazy. It'd be different if I had someone who enjoyed sports or something, but just forcing myself to run on a treadmill or whatever is very, very difficult for me.

As I've said many times before, at some point for me the switch went on and it no longer became an either/or situation. I HAVE to work out regularly to feel good. I do enjoy working out, and working out with Christina all the time certainly helps. It would be nice if we could work out in a gym rather than in our basement, though as you know we have decked our basement out to the point where it's equipped both work-out wise and entertainment-wise admirably enough to keep things interesting.

Who knows how much time you'll have when you come down in July, but maybe we can fit a workout or two in. At least that should be a bit of fun.

Matt Barton wrote:

Therefore, I've been working on my diet, trying to cut down on beer and alcohol (I've managed to go 10 days without any, wish me well), fried foods (I'm especially vulnerable to fried chicken), and chips. Unfortunately, the salad I buy tends to be wilted in just days...I do enjoy the various "Morning Star" veggie patties and such I've found, but I heard even those were soaked in hexane.

Diet is a HUGE factor, and keeping the saturated fat low and the carbohydrates under control help quite a bit, as does maintaining reasonable caloric levels (again, going by weekly totals rather than daily totals).

I've tried to cut out lunch-time fast food myself as much as possible, limiting it to the occasional grilled chicken sandwich or *gasp* fried fish sandwich (Wendy's though). At most fast food places, it's very difficult to get a nutritionally sound meal without bad fats, carbs, sugars and sodium.

Yes, I noticed that, too. I tend to eat fast food on some days just to have something to do with the colleagues. But I decided to get a side salad instead of fries at Burger King, and ended up feeling much better after that (I also had a regular hamburger and spicy chicken). Something about those fries makes me feel lethargic (even though it makes my heart rate soar).